Lamborghinis etc in Ireland

bijapos · 09-04-2009 12:04am

Went to boarding school in Sligo in the mid 80's. There was a yellow 911 carrera there, driven by a woman, seemingly was previously owned by Phil Coulter, sttod out well in Sligo back then!

Also late 80's there was a 70's maserati around limerick, saw it a few times in the castletroy area.

RobAMerc · 09-04-2009 12:06pm

The local chip shop owner in Carrick On Suir had a De Tomaso Pantera which he told me he'd had turbo charged - I remember seeing him light the rears up when overtaking a truck at about 60mph one time!

Another guy had a 308 gt4 which he was trying to swap/trade of some sort, for my Dads 733i because he could not sell it - my dad, brother and I did our level best telling it mum would be a perfect family car but she wasn't convinced

Ferrari3600 · 15-12-2016 9:26pm

hi5 wrote: »

From memory I think the early 308 on leeson street was owned by Gillian Bowler of travel agent fame.

Sorry to bump an old thread, but just to say, Gillian Bowler, businesswoman and car-buff, RIP.

Mitchomagic · 16-12-2016 4:09pm

I remember there was 2 Austin Martins in a scrap yard near Smithfield in a yard under covers rotting away the local kids got in a jumped on the roofs and smashed the glass, the yard is long gone but I wonder if the where sent for scrap

MercMad · 19-12-2016 10:45am

Dunno about the cars but I think the organisers at the Terenure College car show took inspiration from them for one of their exhibitor prize plates

Mitchomagic wrote: »

I remember there was 2 Austin Martins in a scrap yard near Smithfield in a yard under covers rotting away the local kids got in a jumped on the roofs and smashed the glass, the yard is long gone but I wonder if the where sent for scrap

macplaxton · 19-12-2016 11:42am

I was going to post a pic sooner MercMad, but was on the mobile and couldn't find it

2008 plate on Flickr

[ASTON MARTIN comes from Lionel Martin the co-founder who raced at Aston Hill near Aston Clinton, Buckinghamshire, England and has no connection with Herbert Austin of the Austin Motor Company.]

MarkR · 19-12-2016 3:32pm

James VTI on boards here did a bit of a wash a while back.

https://www.facebook.com/mxvaleting/photos/a.694011907290964.1073741851.652309348127887/1302393613119454/?type=3&theater

Not local cars, but nice to see up close. :-)

kyote00 · 19-12-2016 11:42pm

I have one of those also in the garage somewhere....we should start a club
"austin martin" enthuasists....

macplaxton wrote: »

I was going to post a pic sooner MercMad, but was on the mobile and couldn't find it

2008 plate on Flickr

[ASTON MARTIN comes from Lionel Martin the co-founder who raced at Aston Hill near Aston Clinton, Buckinghamshire, England and has no connection with Herbert Austin of the Austin Motor Company.]

okistag · 20-12-2016 9:57pm

My late father owned in the 60's on AC Greyhound 1 of 83 ever made.
Not an AM but a rare car. RZC100 was or is it registration recently sold and left our shores sadly.
I think I posted photos of it on boards in the past. Black and white ones of it in the 60's
I just found this youtube video of it by it last owner in Ireland. He owned it from 1969 till maybe 2-3 years ago.
Its original colour was gun metal grey

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SvjCMMD5ms

The Ritz · 21-12-2016 2:43pm

I'm a bit late to the party here but remember vividly a metallic blue Maserati Merak when on holidays in Ardmore, 1973 or 1974, to a teenage petrolhead it was a site of pilgrimage every morning !

There was also a red Maserati Bora, rough looking, parked in Smithfield, 1978/9 and a Lancia Gamma Coupe parked around Queen St in the same period.

Ritz

ofcork · 21-12-2016 6:05pm

There used to be a white lotus Esprit around cork and a Ferrari 355 a 95 ref iirc.

goochy · 24-12-2016 8:46am

How is it that years ago there were plenty of places selling fancy brands here but there hasn't been a dealer for Aston , Ferrari and rolls here for years ?

hi5 · 24-12-2016 12:52pm

goochy wrote: »

How is it that years ago there were plenty of places selling fancy brands here but there hasn't been a dealer for Aston , Ferrari and rolls here for years ?

Not enough demand, probably wasn't back then either but marketing and distribution has become more intense and selective since.
Just about everything luxury we buy in Ireland is managed from the UK anyway, we're just a UK backwater.

https://www.press.bmwgroup.com/united-kingdom/article/detail/T0188922EN_GB/new-managing-director-for-bmw-group-uk-and-ireland?language=en_GB

millington · 03-01-2017 11:04am

Great thread this good to see it brought back up (albeit for a sad reason)

Can't think of much offhand bar 3 BMW M1s on old Irish plates. 111 MZL, RZY 661 & VZP 888.

Ferrari3600 · 03-01-2017 11:07am

millington wrote: »

Great thread this good to see it brought back up (albeit for a sad reason)

Can't think of much offhand bar 3 BMW M1s on old Irish plates. 111 MZL, RZY 661 & VZP 888.

Remember seeing one of those, a white one. Didn't realise there were as many as three on Irish plates.

The Ritz · 04-01-2017 1:54am

This thread has been lurking in the back of my mind since I posted about the Merak so here's my story of "the one that got away"........

In the eearly 80s I used to pass through Athy weekly on my way from Dublin - this would have been 1981/2/3 as far as I can figure. On the way into Athy from the Kilcullen side there was ( still is ?) a Ford dealership and about the same place on the opposite side of the road was a scrap yard of sorts. now this wasn't a breakers like youd see these days, I think I remember a caravan or mobile and a few broken down cars, not much more.

One day in passing I spotted something strange parked in there and turned in for a closer look - there was no one around anyway. Parked there in a very dilapidated condition was a a Porsche Pre-A 365, split screen. It was rusty, the screen was cracked, the interior butchered and the rear arches had been cut square over the wheels (I'm shuddering now at the memory). It looked to me as though the engine had been swapped, prob for a vw unit, because the rear wheelbase was wider than the front.

At the time I was leading a nomadic existence because I was on the road a lot, living between a flat in Dublin and whatever area I was working and had no way of storing (never mind restoring) the misfortunate car. I thought of it often in the intervening years and recall a small note in one of the UK classic car magazines about the Pre-a which had been rescued from Ireland and I guessed it was the same one - there just couldn't be two of them.

An air-cooled Porsche was my long promised retirement car, but that was a plan hatched when 911s were 10k money - the madness in the market has put paid to that plan making the one that got away all the more bitter sweet.

Ritz.

Zoo4m8 · 04-01-2017 2:39pm

I feel your pain...in the very late seventies a member of a family my girlfriend worked for had a 365, it was being a bit troublesome, I can't remember exactly what the problems were but it was decided to sell it.. There was no interest and it was eventually offered to Duffy' breakers in Smithfield.

They, not unreasonably, said there would be no interest in parts but as there was a nice radio in it they would give £30 :eek: for it..

I got a phone call from the girlfriend saying that it was mine for thirty as the family didn't want to see it broken. My daily driver at the time was a Mustang and an old Porsche was most certainly not on the radar and besides my old man would have had a fit if I " brought home another heap of scrap"

and so it ended up in Smithfield..

Of course I've had many years to wallow in the shortsightness of that decision!

I don't remember many details about the car but I suppose it's not impossible that it could be 'your' one...

kev1.3s · 04-01-2017 2:43pm

I know of an early Irish 356 partially restored involved in a legal dispute. It wouldn't be my place to say any more about it.

millington · 04-01-2017 4:04pm

Ferrari3600 wrote: »

Remember seeing one of those, a white one. Didn't realise there were as many as three on Irish plates.

111 MZL and RZY 661 are both white so could have been one of those!

w124man · 04-01-2017 4:36pm

Many years ago there was a light blue 365 in Templeogue Village. It was owned by Alan Baker who owned Alan's, the sweet shop / newsagent. Long gone now as it was replaced by a BMW 2002ti, which was replaced by a string of GTi Golfs. Alan himself is long gone too!!

Kevin_Herron · 04-01-2017 6:24pm

The Ritz wrote: »

This thread has been lurking in the back of my mind since I posted about the Merak so here's my story of "the one that got away"........

In the eearly 80s I used to pass through Athy weekly on my way from Dublin - this would have been 1981/2/3 as far as I can figure. On the way into Athy from the Kilcullen side there was ( still is ?) a Ford dealership and about the same place on the opposite side of the road was a scrap yard of sorts. now this wasn't a breakers like youd see these days, I think I remember a caravan or mobile and a few broken down cars, not much more.

One day in passing I spotted something strange parked in there and turned in for a closer look - there was no one around anyway. Parked there in a very dilapidated condition was a a Porsche Pre-A 365, split screen. It was rusty, the screen was cracked, the interior butchered and the rear arches had been cut square over the wheels (I'm shuddering now at the memory). It looked to me as though the engine had been swapped, prob for a vw unit, because the rear wheelbase was wider than the front.

At the time I was leading a nomadic existence because I was on the road a lot, living between a flat in Dublin and whatever area I was working and had no way of storing (never mind restoring) the misfortunate car. I thought of it often in the intervening years and recall a small note in one of the UK classic car magazines about the Pre-a which had been rescued from Ireland and I guessed it was the same one - there just couldn't be two of them.

An air-cooled Porsche was my long promised retirement car, but that was a plan hatched when 911s were 10k money - the madness in the market has put paid to that plan making the one that got away all the more bitter sweet.

Ritz.

This sounds very like a 356 that a chap in a garage near mine had for years.
Its reg was WRI840.

The hacked rear arches rang a bell with me.
He sold it approximately 20 years ago to someone in Waterford.

Kevin_Herron · 04-01-2017 6:34pm

w124man wrote: »

Many years ago there was a light blue 365 in Templeogue Village. It was owned by Alan Baker who owned Alan's, the sweet shop / newsagent. Long gone now as it was replaced by a BMW 2002ti, which was replaced by a string of GTi Golfs. Alan himself is long gone too!!

There was quite a number of 356's here.

ZO5961 was the first 356 imported by Motor Distributors Limited and was sold in Dec '52 to a Mrs. O'Kennedy of 53/54 Lower O'Connell Street.

Others were
DZA524 a convertible
CZE549
DNI355

Ferrari3600 · 06-01-2017 10:41pm

millington wrote: »

111 MZL and RZY 661 are both white so could have been one of those!

Circa 1992, I remember seeing Prince's 'Sexy MF' on Top of the Pops (which features Prince with the usual bevy of beauties gyrating in front of a yellow BMW 850, then new on the market.) Later that same evening I saw (you've guessed it) a yellow 850 on the Stillorgan Dual carriageway. If it wasn't for the fact that I was a clean-living college student I might have thought I was hallucinating. Found out later it was part of Frank Keane's collection. He might still have it for all I know. Think he had a Z1 also.

Ferrari3600 · 06-01-2017 11:10pm

Remember seeing a Roll Royce Phantom VI around Dublin on a few occasions early 1990s.

There was also a Mercedes 600 which was at one point owned by Paddy Gallagher, I don't think it is in Ireland any more.

greendragon3 · 07-01-2017 12:26am

bijapos wrote: »

Went to boarding school in Sligo in the mid 80's. There was a yellow 911 carrera there, driven by a woman, seemingly was previously owned by Phil Coulter, sttod out well in Sligo back then!

i remember that Porsche well , used to slobber all over it at lunch time when id nip down town on the pushbike from school , it used to belong to mrs waters , her son owns shoot the crows pub in sligo , it may still be stashed away in some shed somewhere .

Vincent bonners old BMW M5 still lives in sligo too , the chap that owns the record room owns it for years , i spent a lot of time looking at it too , dreaming . :rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:

68deville · 07-01-2017 1:25am

An original irish porsche 911 2.4S , FZR 199 was the reg lived in New Ross
For many years from the mid 70s, the original owner had a larger 21 gallon
Fuel tank fitted and competed in the Targa Florio with the car, he also owned
A Porsche 914 from new also in a mint green XMI *** was the reg

kev1.3s · 07-01-2017 1:46am

Ferrari3600 wrote: »

Circa 1992, I remember seeing Prince's 'Sexy MF' on Top of the Pops (which features Prince with the usual bevy of beauties gyrating in front of a yellow BMW 850, then new on the market.) Later that same evening I saw (you've guessed it) a yellow 850 on the Stillorgan Dual carriageway. If it wasn't for the fact that I was a clean-living college student I might have thought I was hallucinating. Found out later it was part of Frank Keane's collection. He might still have it for all I know. Think he had a Z1 also.

I've seen both the 850 and the z1, I met the owner of the z1 at mondello a couple of years ago and had a good poke round it.

Ferrari3600 · 07-01-2017 1:54am

Used to be a Ferrari Mondial knocking around Dublin 2 area back around the early 2000s, saw it on quite a few occasions.

Also a Lotus Excel in Stillorgan circa late 1980s - a very rare car. Not a very good car, mind.

Don't think too many TVRs ever made their way to Ireland, though was certainly a Chimaera around at one point.

House near Enniskerry had a Renault Alpine early 1990s.

There was at least one Ferrari 400 imported into Ireland by a well-known businessman who is a Ferrari buff and collector - as far as I'm aware it is still in the country.

Ferrari3600 · 07-01-2017 2:01am

kev1.3s wrote: »

I've seen both the 850 and the z1, I met the owner of the z1 at mondello a couple of years ago and had a good poke round it.

There was another 850 in a more sedate colour that was formerly owned by Ben Dunne.

68deville · 07-01-2017 2:05am

In the late 80s there was a white lotus esprit turbo HC in the rosslare area
It had a red velour interior and prob the very last of the S3 shape, still around
But not been on road for a while 87 WX 2107 I'm nearly sure was reg

Lamborghinis etc in Ireland

Comments